Exploration:  Data capture systems and gendered vulnerabilities during Covid-19 and public health emergencies

Themes | Subthemes | Tags: Vulnerabilities and justice; Public health ethics | Gender, data capture systems, public health emergencies, gender in health research
Duration: May 2020 onwards
Team:  Amita Pitre and Sunita Sheel
Funding support:  None
Product/s expected: A position paper     

Overview: This work is part of our work in the space of gender justice. Appropriate, well-informed, timely, and sustained response to public health emergencies in general, and to those of global concerns such as Covid-19, in particular is a key to contain the pandemic. One of the critical pieces in achieving this goal is existence of a well-established system for epidemiologic data capture, required infrastructure, and robust governance structures for creating data repositories, data retrieval and data sharing. This enables developing necessary intelligence for evidence-based public health interventions to respond to pandemics. Such an intelligence is also essential to inform policies to help rebuild communities, constituencies and nations post pandemic. The World Health Organization notes that challenges involved in conducting global surveillance.  It is against this backdrop that we focus this work on the health risks women have been facing during the Covid-19 pandemic and to know if the data sources are robust enough. We show that the heightened risks to women in certain domains are concerning and that that data sources are not sufficiently robust, well-structured and unified hampering necessary nuanced understanding of intersectionality for a better-informed ongoing response to Covid-19 and subsequent recovery measures.

Select past contributions: 

  • Bandewar SVS. Public narrative on “instant justice”: A slippery slope. Indian J Med Ethics. 2020 Jan-Mar; 5(1) NS:3-6. DOI: 10.20529/IJME.2020.006.
  • Lingam L., Bandewar S., Pitre A. Hosted a workshop titled, ‘Gender based violence in India: Critical insights into the ground realities based on empirical and secondary research.’ at the joint 7th National Bioethics Conference and 14th World Congress of Bioethics, Dec 2018, St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India
  • Bandewar SVS, Pitre A, Lingam L. Five years post Nirbhaya: Critical insights into the status of response to sexual assault. Indian J Med Ethics. Published online on March 28, 2018. DOI: 10.20529/IJME.2018.025.
  • Bandewar SVS. Healing and Dying with Dignity: Ethical Issues in Palliative and End-of-Life Care and Euthanasia: Reporting from the Sixth National Bioethics Conference (January 12–15, 2017, Pune, Maharashtra, India). Asian Bioethics Review (2017) 9:137–147. DOI 10.1007/s41649-017-0005-0
  • Bandewar S Lingam L. Hosted a pre-conference titled ‘An inter-sectoral engagement workshop Enhancing Quality of Response of the System to Survivors of Gender Based Violence: A systemic Ethical Obligation towards Gender Justice’ at the Sixth National Bioethics Conference, Jan 12, 2017 in Pune, MH, India.
  • Singh, J., Bandewar, S., Singer, PA (2009). Sex, gender, and health biotechnology: points to consider. BMC International Health and Human Rights 2009, 9:15 doi:10.1186/1472-698X-9-15.
  • Bandewar, S. (2003). Abortion Services and providers’ perceptions: gendered dimensions. Economic and Political Weekly, 38 (21). (May 24-30, 2003), pp. 2075-2081